Cruisers

While many folk think that the opposite ends of the motorcycling world are road racing and custom biking, and that there is absolutely zero crossover, they’re actually deceiving themselves in that opinion, writes Dave M… Aside from the fact that bikes like those ridden by Marc Marquez and Valentino Rossi are among the most extreme…

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The ’70s style may be hot among a lot of bike builders, but friends and colleagues Mike Gustafsson and Jörgen Hases from Sweden claim not to care about what’s fashionable: “We’re so uncool that we’ve built in this style for 15 years by now, and only lately have the younger guys started doing the same…”…

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My bike, Mr Hardy, was built to be a ‘Rescue Remedy’. I work in crisis and chaos in social services, and the impact takes its toll at times, but 2016 was the toughest to date – not just through dealing with others’ trauma; I had my own personal share of relentless bombshells and almost broke…

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Having access to a fully equipped workshop does help when you’re going to build a custom bike, as does having been in the game since God’s dog was a puppy, naturally. Pics: Simon Everett When Hank, head honcho at Trike Design/Hank’s Chop Shop in Caerphilly, ex-president of the National Chopper Club and a man who…

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In terms of building motorcycles that became known for their performance, Birmingham Small Arms, or BSA as they’re more commonly known, didn’t, or perhaps haven’t, done quite as well as their great rivals Triumph or Norton. Pics: Simon Everett Yes, I’m aware that the Gold Star, both in its 350cc and 500cc variants, 1938-1963, is…

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I think it was the ancient Greek tragedian Aeschylus who said ‘Wisdom comes only through suffering’. You’ve got to hand it to those old ancient Greeks – they might’ve had some very dubious ideas about the education, in every sense of the word, of young boys, but when it comes to sitting about in a…

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The idea for this bike came some 30 years ago when my good mate Reitse acquired a Triumph front frame loop and engine (which had been, apparently, overhauled). I’d built several Triumphs that’d been to his liking so the plan was that I’d build it for him. We were both in our 20s then, and…

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While buying an already-built custom bike has some advantages – not having to spend endless hours making/fitting parts, waiting for suppliers or trying to understand the dark art of wiring or any of the other endless headaches involved in bike building – there’s one huge disadvantage; it’ll never truly be your bike! Words and pictures:…

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Pictures: Joseba Aguirre When describing the manner in which custom bikes are crafted, us eloquent wordsmiffs, like, are wont to use some fairly flowery language so as not keep repeating words like ‘built’, ‘made’, ‘welded up’ et cetera, et cetera. One of the most apt of these terms wot we use to describe the bending,…

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For years I’d been reading magazines and trawling the internet for cafe racers and found that with almost all of them I thought things like “I’d’ve done that like that” or “I wouldn’t’ve done it that way”, and so on and so on. We all do it, don’t we? There comes a time though when…

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